Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: BoM analysis reveals higher production costs due to expensive Snapdragon 8 Elite

According to the latest analysis by Counterpoint Research, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of flash storage costs around 3.4% more to produce than the Galaxy S24 Ultra with the same storage configuration, which in turn cost virtually the same as the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The analysis doesn't specify concrete amounts, but Counterpoint Research previously estimated the cost of the Galaxy S23 Ultra (256 GB of storage) at $469. With a 3.4% increase, this would equate to $484 in manufacturing costs for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Even without specific amounts, the cost breakdown is revealing, as the higher costs are mainly attributable to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is 21% more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 due to the combination of new Qualcomm Oryon CPU cores and N3E manufacturing. Prices for RAM and flash memory have risen only slightly. The titanium frame has become 8% cheaper thanks to manufacturing optimizations, after being 32% more expensive in the Galaxy S24 Ultra than the aluminum frame of the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Despite the improved 50-MP ultra-wide-angle camera, Samsung was able to reduce the cost of the rear quad camera by 8% thanks to declining prices for smartphone camera lenses. The 5G modem and antennas were over 10% cheaper, while the OLED display only fell by "a few percent" – both due to falling component prices.